Discussion Forum: Thread 164747

 Author: bb186511 View Messages Posted By bb186511
 Posted: Jan 27, 2014 13:50
 Subject: Seller Assistance Program
 Viewed: 277 times
 Topic: Suggestions
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bb186511 (3305)

Location:  USA, Missouri
Member Since Contact Type Status
Jan 13, 2010 Contact Member Seller
No Longer RegisteredNo Longer Registered
Store Closed Store: Garys Toys
No Longer Registered
Upon reading the forums over the last few weeks I have noticed a few sellers
that are getting a lot of negative feedback, having issues with customers, getting
NSS, etc... A couple of these sellers I know personally. I do not know of their
issues and what is causing them and frankly it has been my experience not to
even get involved.

However, it does give me an idea that I think could only help. I know not all
sellers are bad and there are plenty that are. But what if we had some sort of
Seller Assistance Program that could reach out to some of these stores that are
not looking so good. Maybe we can get them on the right track and show them things
that we notice that may improve their store and their overall customer experience.

I know I will be helping one of these stores over the next few weeks as I have
already talked to him. Just from having a look at the forum posts, his feedback,
etc... I seen multiple things that I do that may help him improve on his end.

I know its easy to just warn everyone, ruin their name, and go on about your
business but helping them when they may be in need can't hurt and it can
only help the Bricklink community as a whole IMO.

Thoughts? Ideas?

Gary
 Author: Brettj666 View Messages Posted By Brettj666
 Posted: Jan 27, 2014 13:56
 Subject: Re: Seller Assistance Program
 Viewed: 87 times
 Topic: Suggestions
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Brettj666 (1111)

Location:  Canada, Ontario
Member Since Contact Type Status
Sep 29, 2009 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store Closed Store: Ryno's Den
In Suggestions, Garys_Toys writes:
  Upon reading the forums over the last few weeks I have noticed a few sellers
that are getting a lot of negative feedback, having issues with customers, getting
NSS, etc... A couple of these sellers I know personally. I do not know of their
issues and what is causing them and frankly it has been my experience not to
even get involved.

However, it does give me an idea that I think could only help. I know not all
sellers are bad and there are plenty that are. But what if we had some sort of
Seller Assistance Program that could reach out to some of these stores that are
not looking so good. Maybe we can get them on the right track and show them things
that we notice that may improve their store and their overall customer experience.

I know I will be helping one of these stores over the next few weeks as I have
already talked to him. Just from having a look at the forum posts, his feedback,
etc... I seen multiple things that I do that may help him improve on his end.

I know its easy to just warn everyone, ruin their name, and go on about your
business but helping them when they may be in need can't hurt and it can
only help the Bricklink community as a whole IMO.

Thoughts? Ideas?

Gary

People can and have come into the forum and ask "why am I not getting any orders"
or "any ideas to improve my store", but to those people that are racking up negatives
or NSS, we can't go and pro-actively seek them out.

For the most part, unless the idea is to steal money it should be 'fairly'
simple

list the items you have for sale
When you get the money for the items, ship the items for which you got the money
if there's a problem, deal with it as if you were on the buying side.

I have three times experienced more orders than my free time would allow, and
each time I shut down my store, forgoing other orders to service the customers
that I have.

To continue to take orders is just vanity and greed if you can't service
your customers the way you have to.

For the people spiraling out of control (from the buyer'ss perspective),
what's really going to help but the obvious. SHIP MY ORDER
 Author: bb186511 View Messages Posted By bb186511
 Posted: Jan 27, 2014 14:14
 Subject: Re: Seller Assistance Program
 Viewed: 47 times
 Topic: Suggestions
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bb186511 (3305)

Location:  USA, Missouri
Member Since Contact Type Status
Jan 13, 2010 Contact Member Seller
No Longer RegisteredNo Longer Registered
Store Closed Store: Garys Toys
No Longer Registered
In Suggestions, Brettj666 writes:
  In Suggestions, Garys_Toys writes:
  Upon reading the forums over the last few weeks I have noticed a few sellers
that are getting a lot of negative feedback, having issues with customers, getting
NSS, etc... A couple of these sellers I know personally. I do not know of their
issues and what is causing them and frankly it has been my experience not to
even get involved.

However, it does give me an idea that I think could only help. I know not all
sellers are bad and there are plenty that are. But what if we had some sort of
Seller Assistance Program that could reach out to some of these stores that are
not looking so good. Maybe we can get them on the right track and show them things
that we notice that may improve their store and their overall customer experience.

I know I will be helping one of these stores over the next few weeks as I have
already talked to him. Just from having a look at the forum posts, his feedback,
etc... I seen multiple things that I do that may help him improve on his end.

I know its easy to just warn everyone, ruin their name, and go on about your
business but helping them when they may be in need can't hurt and it can
only help the Bricklink community as a whole IMO.

Thoughts? Ideas?

Gary

People can and have come into the forum and ask "why am I not getting any orders"
or "any ideas to improve my store", but to those people that are racking up negatives
or NSS, we can't go and pro-actively seek them out.

For the most part, unless the idea is to steal money it should be 'fairly'
simple

list the items you have for sale
When you get the money for the items, ship the items for which you got the money
if there's a problem, deal with it as if you were on the buying side.

I have three times experienced more orders than my free time would allow, and
each time I shut down my store, forgoing other orders to service the customers
that I have.

To continue to take orders is just vanity and greed if you can't service
your customers the way you have to.

For the people spiraling out of control (from the buyer'ss perspective),
what's really going to help but the obvious. SHIP MY ORDER

Sure if one shoe fit every foot that may make sense. However, every situation
is different. Many of these complaints involving NSS are a bit inflated on the
seller I am helping as the orders were shipped. He had shortages and missed them
when pulling and packing. A piece or in some cases a few pieces were missing.
I know for an absolute fact he was trying to rectify the situations as I shipped
a good deal of parts out of my inventory directly to the customers for him to
help him out. I have also figured out what caused his issues as far as inventory
goes. I keep using him as an example as I am working directly with him to figure
things out and I know his situation. It wasn't about being to busy or being
greedy as you put it. In his case it happened over a couple weeks time but it
still haunting him a month later. Most of the times here in the forum we see
one side and our mind is made up. Why not try?

My point is I am trying to offer assistance and opinions to assist other sellers
to better Bricklink as a whole. I am not sure why most wouldn't agree if
something can be done to stop some of the rubbish why not try.

There is no sense in losing a potentially good seller over mistakes.

Gary
 Author: superchicken77 View Messages Posted By superchicken77
 Posted: Jan 27, 2014 14:22
 Subject: Re: Seller Assistance Program
 Viewed: 49 times
 Topic: Suggestions
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superchicken77 (1273)

Location:  Canada, Ontario
Member Since Contact Type Status
Jan 9, 2013 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store: SuperChicken Bricks - GTA
Some people take offense when other people offer unsolicited help. It's
one thing to ask for help on the forum but it's another to be approached
by somebody else telling you what you're doing wrong. I don't have a
store but if I did and somebody pointed out that I was doing things wrong, I'd
tell them to mind their own business. Unless there are BL rules about shipping,
packaging etc.. every store will do things their own way. Sure there are "best
practices" (and best being a subjective term because what's best for some
isn't best for others) and maybe those can be posted somewhere in the help
section.



In Suggestions, Garys_Toys writes:
  In Suggestions, Brettj666 writes:
  In Suggestions, Garys_Toys writes:
  Upon reading the forums over the last few weeks I have noticed a few sellers
that are getting a lot of negative feedback, having issues with customers, getting
NSS, etc... A couple of these sellers I know personally. I do not know of their
issues and what is causing them and frankly it has been my experience not to
even get involved.

However, it does give me an idea that I think could only help. I know not all
sellers are bad and there are plenty that are. But what if we had some sort of
Seller Assistance Program that could reach out to some of these stores that are
not looking so good. Maybe we can get them on the right track and show them things
that we notice that may improve their store and their overall customer experience.

I know I will be helping one of these stores over the next few weeks as I have
already talked to him. Just from having a look at the forum posts, his feedback,
etc... I seen multiple things that I do that may help him improve on his end.

I know its easy to just warn everyone, ruin their name, and go on about your
business but helping them when they may be in need can't hurt and it can
only help the Bricklink community as a whole IMO.

Thoughts? Ideas?

Gary

People can and have come into the forum and ask "why am I not getting any orders"
or "any ideas to improve my store", but to those people that are racking up negatives
or NSS, we can't go and pro-actively seek them out.

For the most part, unless the idea is to steal money it should be 'fairly'
simple

list the items you have for sale
When you get the money for the items, ship the items for which you got the money
if there's a problem, deal with it as if you were on the buying side.

I have three times experienced more orders than my free time would allow, and
each time I shut down my store, forgoing other orders to service the customers
that I have.

To continue to take orders is just vanity and greed if you can't service
your customers the way you have to.

For the people spiraling out of control (from the buyer'ss perspective),
what's really going to help but the obvious. SHIP MY ORDER

Sure if one shoe fit every foot that may make sense. However, every situation
is different. Many of these complaints involving NSS are a bit inflated on the
seller I am helping as the orders were shipped. He had shortages and missed them
when pulling and packing. A piece or in some cases a few pieces were missing.
I know for an absolute fact he was trying to rectify the situations as I shipped
a good deal of parts out of my inventory directly to the customers for him to
help him out. I have also figured out what caused his issues as far as inventory
goes. I keep using him as an example as I am working directly with him to figure
things out and I know his situation. It wasn't about being to busy or being
greedy as you put it. In his case it happened over a couple weeks time but it
still haunting him a month later. Most of the times here in the forum we see
one side and our mind is made up. Why not try?

My point is I am trying to offer assistance and opinions to assist other sellers
to better Bricklink as a whole. I am not sure why most wouldn't agree if
something can be done to stop some of the rubbish why not try.

There is no sense in losing a potentially good seller over mistakes.

Gary
 Author: bb186511 View Messages Posted By bb186511
 Posted: Jan 27, 2014 14:32
 Subject: Re: Seller Assistance Program
 Viewed: 40 times
 Topic: Suggestions
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bb186511 (3305)

Location:  USA, Missouri
Member Since Contact Type Status
Jan 13, 2010 Contact Member Seller
No Longer RegisteredNo Longer Registered
Store Closed Store: Garys Toys
No Longer Registered
In Suggestions, superchicken77 writes:
  Some people take offense when other people offer unsolicited help. It's
one thing to ask for help on the forum but it's another to be approached
by somebody else telling you what you're doing wrong. I don't have a
store but if I did and somebody pointed out that I was doing things wrong, I'd
tell them to mind their own business. Unless there are BL rules about shipping,
packaging etc.. every store will do things their own way. Sure there are "best
practices" (and best being a subjective term because what's best for some
isn't best for others) and maybe those can be posted somewhere in the help
section.



In Suggestions, Garys_Toys writes:
  In Suggestions, Brettj666 writes:
  In Suggestions, Garys_Toys writes:
  Upon reading the forums over the last few weeks I have noticed a few sellers
that are getting a lot of negative feedback, having issues with customers, getting
NSS, etc... A couple of these sellers I know personally. I do not know of their
issues and what is causing them and frankly it has been my experience not to
even get involved.

However, it does give me an idea that I think could only help. I know not all
sellers are bad and there are plenty that are. But what if we had some sort of
Seller Assistance Program that could reach out to some of these stores that are
not looking so good. Maybe we can get them on the right track and show them things
that we notice that may improve their store and their overall customer experience.

I know I will be helping one of these stores over the next few weeks as I have
already talked to him. Just from having a look at the forum posts, his feedback,
etc... I seen multiple things that I do that may help him improve on his end.

I know its easy to just warn everyone, ruin their name, and go on about your
business but helping them when they may be in need can't hurt and it can
only help the Bricklink community as a whole IMO.

Thoughts? Ideas?

Gary

People can and have come into the forum and ask "why am I not getting any orders"
or "any ideas to improve my store", but to those people that are racking up negatives
or NSS, we can't go and pro-actively seek them out.

For the most part, unless the idea is to steal money it should be 'fairly'
simple

list the items you have for sale
When you get the money for the items, ship the items for which you got the money
if there's a problem, deal with it as if you were on the buying side.

I have three times experienced more orders than my free time would allow, and
each time I shut down my store, forgoing other orders to service the customers
that I have.

To continue to take orders is just vanity and greed if you can't service
your customers the way you have to.

For the people spiraling out of control (from the buyer'ss perspective),
what's really going to help but the obvious. SHIP MY ORDER

Sure if one shoe fit every foot that may make sense. However, every situation
is different. Many of these complaints involving NSS are a bit inflated on the
seller I am helping as the orders were shipped. He had shortages and missed them
when pulling and packing. A piece or in some cases a few pieces were missing.
I know for an absolute fact he was trying to rectify the situations as I shipped
a good deal of parts out of my inventory directly to the customers for him to
help him out. I have also figured out what caused his issues as far as inventory
goes. I keep using him as an example as I am working directly with him to figure
things out and I know his situation. It wasn't about being to busy or being
greedy as you put it. In his case it happened over a couple weeks time but it
still haunting him a month later. Most of the times here in the forum we see
one side and our mind is made up. Why not try?

My point is I am trying to offer assistance and opinions to assist other sellers
to better Bricklink as a whole. I am not sure why most wouldn't agree if
something can be done to stop some of the rubbish why not try.

There is no sense in losing a potentially good seller over mistakes.

Gary

Just to clarify I wasn't talking about browsing feedback looking for sellers
to contact. My idea was to basically have a list of sellers who would volunteer
their time if called upon to help others sellers that requested it. They would
have to reach out for help. I didn't intend on looking for them.

Gary
 Author: Made_In_Bricks View Messages Posted By Made_In_Bricks
 Posted: Jan 27, 2014 14:36
 Subject: Re: Seller Assistance Program
 Viewed: 38 times
 Topic: Suggestions
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Made_In_Bricks (3993)

Location:  USA, Idaho
Member Since Contact Type Status
Oct 28, 2009 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store: Made In Bricks
In Suggestions, Garys_Toys writes:
  In Suggestions, superchicken77 writes:
  Some people take offense when other people offer unsolicited help. It's
one thing to ask for help on the forum but it's another to be approached
by somebody else telling you what you're doing wrong. I don't have a
store but if I did and somebody pointed out that I was doing things wrong, I'd
tell them to mind their own business. Unless there are BL rules about shipping,
packaging etc.. every store will do things their own way. Sure there are "best
practices" (and best being a subjective term because what's best for some
isn't best for others) and maybe those can be posted somewhere in the help
section.



In Suggestions, Garys_Toys writes:
  In Suggestions, Brettj666 writes:
  In Suggestions, Garys_Toys writes:
  Upon reading the forums over the last few weeks I have noticed a few sellers
that are getting a lot of negative feedback, having issues with customers, getting
NSS, etc... A couple of these sellers I know personally. I do not know of their
issues and what is causing them and frankly it has been my experience not to
even get involved.

However, it does give me an idea that I think could only help. I know not all
sellers are bad and there are plenty that are. But what if we had some sort of
Seller Assistance Program that could reach out to some of these stores that are
not looking so good. Maybe we can get them on the right track and show them things
that we notice that may improve their store and their overall customer experience.

I know I will be helping one of these stores over the next few weeks as I have
already talked to him. Just from having a look at the forum posts, his feedback,
etc... I seen multiple things that I do that may help him improve on his end.

I know its easy to just warn everyone, ruin their name, and go on about your
business but helping them when they may be in need can't hurt and it can
only help the Bricklink community as a whole IMO.

Thoughts? Ideas?

Gary

People can and have come into the forum and ask "why am I not getting any orders"
or "any ideas to improve my store", but to those people that are racking up negatives
or NSS, we can't go and pro-actively seek them out.

For the most part, unless the idea is to steal money it should be 'fairly'
simple

list the items you have for sale
When you get the money for the items, ship the items for which you got the money
if there's a problem, deal with it as if you were on the buying side.

I have three times experienced more orders than my free time would allow, and
each time I shut down my store, forgoing other orders to service the customers
that I have.

To continue to take orders is just vanity and greed if you can't service
your customers the way you have to.

For the people spiraling out of control (from the buyer'ss perspective),
what's really going to help but the obvious. SHIP MY ORDER

Sure if one shoe fit every foot that may make sense. However, every situation
is different. Many of these complaints involving NSS are a bit inflated on the
seller I am helping as the orders were shipped. He had shortages and missed them
when pulling and packing. A piece or in some cases a few pieces were missing.
I know for an absolute fact he was trying to rectify the situations as I shipped
a good deal of parts out of my inventory directly to the customers for him to
help him out. I have also figured out what caused his issues as far as inventory
goes. I keep using him as an example as I am working directly with him to figure
things out and I know his situation. It wasn't about being to busy or being
greedy as you put it. In his case it happened over a couple weeks time but it
still haunting him a month later. Most of the times here in the forum we see
one side and our mind is made up. Why not try?

My point is I am trying to offer assistance and opinions to assist other sellers
to better Bricklink as a whole. I am not sure why most wouldn't agree if
something can be done to stop some of the rubbish why not try.

There is no sense in losing a potentially good seller over mistakes.

Gary

Just to clarify I wasn't talking about browsing feedback looking for sellers
to contact. My idea was to basically have a list of sellers who would volunteer
their time if called upon to help others sellers that requested it. They would
have to reach out for help. I didn't intend on looking for them.

Gary



This kind of goes with my idea of having volunteer dispute resolution

users volunteer to take cases, you get statements from buyer and seller (no user
names exchanged and they never know who heard their case)

users agree that they will accept the solution from the mediator and feedback
is exempt so there are no personal transgressions brought out

that would be something I would volunteer for too
 Author: Brettj666 View Messages Posted By Brettj666
 Posted: Jan 27, 2014 14:28
 Subject: Re: Seller Assistance Program
 Viewed: 39 times
 Topic: Suggestions
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Brettj666 (1111)

Location:  Canada, Ontario
Member Since Contact Type Status
Sep 29, 2009 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store Closed Store: Ryno's Den
In Suggestions, Garys_Toys writes:
  In Suggestions, Brettj666 writes:
  In Suggestions, Garys_Toys writes:
  Upon reading the forums over the last few weeks I have noticed a few sellers
that are getting a lot of negative feedback, having issues with customers, getting
NSS, etc... A couple of these sellers I know personally. I do not know of their
issues and what is causing them and frankly it has been my experience not to
even get involved.

However, it does give me an idea that I think could only help. I know not all
sellers are bad and there are plenty that are. But what if we had some sort of
Seller Assistance Program that could reach out to some of these stores that are
not looking so good. Maybe we can get them on the right track and show them things
that we notice that may improve their store and their overall customer experience.

I know I will be helping one of these stores over the next few weeks as I have
already talked to him. Just from having a look at the forum posts, his feedback,
etc... I seen multiple things that I do that may help him improve on his end.

I know its easy to just warn everyone, ruin their name, and go on about your
business but helping them when they may be in need can't hurt and it can
only help the Bricklink community as a whole IMO.

Thoughts? Ideas?

Gary

People can and have come into the forum and ask "why am I not getting any orders"
or "any ideas to improve my store", but to those people that are racking up negatives
or NSS, we can't go and pro-actively seek them out.

For the most part, unless the idea is to steal money it should be 'fairly'
simple

list the items you have for sale
When you get the money for the items, ship the items for which you got the money
if there's a problem, deal with it as if you were on the buying side.

I have three times experienced more orders than my free time would allow, and
each time I shut down my store, forgoing other orders to service the customers
that I have.

To continue to take orders is just vanity and greed if you can't service
your customers the way you have to.

For the people spiraling out of control (from the buyer'ss perspective),
what's really going to help but the obvious. SHIP MY ORDER

Sure if one shoe fit every foot that may make sense. However, every situation
is different. Many of these complaints involving NSS are a bit inflated on the
seller I am helping as the orders were shipped. He had shortages and missed them
when pulling and packing. A piece or in some cases a few pieces were missing.
I know for an absolute fact he was trying to rectify the situations as I shipped
a good deal of parts out of my inventory directly to the customers for him to
help him out. I have also figured out what caused his issues as far as inventory
goes. I keep using him as an example as I am working directly with him to figure
things out and I know his situation. It wasn't about being to busy or being
greedy as you put it. In his case it happened over a couple weeks time but it
still haunting him a month later. Most of the times here in the forum we see
one side and our mind is made up. Why not try?

My point is I am trying to offer assistance and opinions to assist other sellers
to better Bricklink as a whole. I am not sure why most wouldn't agree if
something can be done to stop some of the rubbish why not try.

There is no sense in losing a potentially good seller over mistakes.

Gary

If the seller you're specifically talking about approached the general forum
and said "here's my situation", I'm sure people would have loads of advice
and help to offer.

So, in a way, we have a seller's assistance program, it's called good
people in the forum.

So, directly I'll ask you a question. When this person started coming up
with short inventory, did they continue to take orders? if so, why??
Yes, it could creep up on you "wow, I don't have any of these and someone
bought 20, what's going on".. All the little gremlins that invade inventory.
But at some point you have to say "something's wrong, I have to fix this"
and the best way to do that is shut down and deal with it.


I'm all for your idea, I just don't think it can be proactively done.
You can't seek people out, they have to raise their hands and ask for help.


Now, do most people know they can do this in the forum? Perhaps not.. You can't
email stores and say "I see you're getting a few NSS's, want some help
or tips" because if you do it for a few, you have to do it to all and that info
is not public.

How do you educate people on options in the forum? have Admin send a message
to everyone with a store?

I agree it's in every ones best interest to have excellent sellers, but that
line is often based on how you deal with mistakes
 Author: bb186511 View Messages Posted By bb186511
 Posted: Jan 27, 2014 14:42
 Subject: Re: Seller Assistance Program
 Viewed: 49 times
 Topic: Suggestions
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bb186511 (3305)

Location:  USA, Missouri
Member Since Contact Type Status
Jan 13, 2010 Contact Member Seller
No Longer RegisteredNo Longer Registered
Store Closed Store: Garys Toys
No Longer Registered
  If the seller you're specifically talking about approached the general forum
and said "here's my situation", I'm sure people would have loads of advice
and help to offer.

He was going to actually and I told him it was a bad idea. It would just turn
into a 100 message bash session where half the forum sides with one and half
sides with the other and nothing gets accomplished. Its better to fix the issues
and work with your buy to resolve it not the forum.

  So, in a way, we have a seller's assistance program, it's called good
people in the forum.

I absolutely disagree. If it was just about getting helpful opinions, sure I
would agree with you. But to many strong opinions just scare people away.


  So, directly I'll ask you a question. When this person started coming up
with short inventory, did they continue to take orders? if so, why??

I don't shut my store down every time I have inventory issues. I would be
willing to bed money that most don't. Sure most would say here that they
do because it looks good but inventory errors are way to common when messing
with the amount of inventory we do on a daily basis.

  Yes, it could creep up on you "wow, I don't have any of these and someone
bought 20, what's going on".. All the little gremlins that invade inventory.
But at some point you have to say "something's wrong, I have to fix this"
and the best way to do that is shut down and deal with it.


  
I'm all for your idea, I just don't think it can be proactively done.
You can't seek people out, they have to raise their hands and ask for help.

I am not talking about seeking people out. I am sorry if I wasn't clear in my idea. My idea was to post a list somewhere of sellers who would be willing to volunteer their times, ideas, ways of doing things, to help other sellers out. They would have to seek the volunteers out.

  Now, do most people know they can do this in the forum? Perhaps not.. You can't
email stores and say "I see you're getting a few NSS's, want some help
or tips" because if you do it for a few, you have to do it to all and that info
is not public.

I just think someone already having a hard time and getting thrashed in the forum
wont get much useful assistance as minds are already made up.
  
How do you educate people on options in the forum? have Admin send a message
to everyone with a store?

You don't.
  
I agree it's in every ones best interest to have excellent sellers, but that
line is often based on how you deal with mistakes
 Author: QCBricks View Messages Posted By QCBricks
 Posted: Jan 27, 2014 14:10
 Subject: Re: Seller Assistance Program
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QCBricks (13608)

Location:  USA, Arizona
Member Since Contact Type Status
Jan 26, 2010 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store: Queen Creek Bricks
In Suggestions, Garys_Toys writes:
  Upon reading the forums over the last few weeks I have noticed a few sellers
that are getting a lot of negative feedback, having issues with customers, getting
NSS, etc... A couple of these sellers I know personally. I do not know of their
issues and what is causing them and frankly it has been my experience not to
even get involved.

However, it does give me an idea that I think could only help. I know not all
sellers are bad and there are plenty that are. But what if we had some sort of
Seller Assistance Program that could reach out to some of these stores that are
not looking so good. Maybe we can get them on the right track and show them things
that we notice that may improve their store and their overall customer experience.

I know I will be helping one of these stores over the next few weeks as I have
already talked to him. Just from having a look at the forum posts, his feedback,
etc... I seen multiple things that I do that may help him improve on his end.

I know its easy to just warn everyone, ruin their name, and go on about your
business but helping them when they may be in need can't hurt and it can
only help the Bricklink community as a whole IMO.

Thoughts? Ideas?

Gary

I think that Bricklink needs something to ether get these people performing
or to get them off the site. In my opinion, these jokers that are running at
5-10%+ negatives and neutrals pose one of the biggest threats to the long term
viability of this site. At this time of year, BL is flooded with new buyers.
How many are leaving after going through some of this shipping after 10 business
days nonsense?

That said, I have done a fair bit of working with newer sellers and there is
always one major hurdle...

What works well for us, may never work well for them. There are so many potential
variations in just about every aspect of running a BL store that taking the time
to provide this information may prove fruitless. I can provide all the tips
I have about how we ship efficiently, but if the store in question lacks the
willingness or resources to apply those tips...not much will change.

I think that a better approach would be to have some sort of probation period
(maybe in concert with some coaching) that forces these stores to either improve
or leave. As it stands now, they really have little incentive to change since
some number of buyers have the "it probably won't happen to me..." approach.

Scott
 Author: bb186511 View Messages Posted By bb186511
 Posted: Jan 27, 2014 14:18
 Subject: Re: Seller Assistance Program
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bb186511 (3305)

Location:  USA, Missouri
Member Since Contact Type Status
Jan 13, 2010 Contact Member Seller
No Longer RegisteredNo Longer Registered
Store Closed Store: Garys Toys
No Longer Registered
In Suggestions, QCBricks writes:
  In Suggestions, Garys_Toys writes:
  Upon reading the forums over the last few weeks I have noticed a few sellers
that are getting a lot of negative feedback, having issues with customers, getting
NSS, etc... A couple of these sellers I know personally. I do not know of their
issues and what is causing them and frankly it has been my experience not to
even get involved.

However, it does give me an idea that I think could only help. I know not all
sellers are bad and there are plenty that are. But what if we had some sort of
Seller Assistance Program that could reach out to some of these stores that are
not looking so good. Maybe we can get them on the right track and show them things
that we notice that may improve their store and their overall customer experience.

I know I will be helping one of these stores over the next few weeks as I have
already talked to him. Just from having a look at the forum posts, his feedback,
etc... I seen multiple things that I do that may help him improve on his end.

I know its easy to just warn everyone, ruin their name, and go on about your
business but helping them when they may be in need can't hurt and it can
only help the Bricklink community as a whole IMO.

Thoughts? Ideas?

Gary

I think that Bricklink needs something to ether get these people performing
or to get them off the site. In my opinion, these jokers that are running at
5-10%+ negatives and neutrals pose one of the biggest threats to the long term
viability of this site. At this time of year, BL is flooded with new buyers.
How many are leaving after going through some of this shipping after 10 business
days nonsense?

That said, I have done a fair bit of working with newer sellers and there is
always one major hurdle...

What works well for us, may never work well for them. There are so many potential
variations in just about every aspect of running a BL store that taking the time
to provide this information may prove fruitless. I can provide all the tips
I have about how we ship efficiently, but if the store in question lacks the
willingness or resources to apply those tips...not much will change.

I think that a better approach would be to have some sort of probation period
(maybe in concert with some coaching) that forces these stores to either improve
or leave. As it stands now, they really have little incentive to change since
some number of buyers have the "it probably won't happen to me..." approach.

Scott

Scott,

Well said and I agree. I just feel like if I can help I should try. I am certain
I will be able to help the seller I am working with now. I would be in favor
of a probation period with coaching instead of an all out ban.

I also understand that there are bad sellers and sellers who have no business
selling here. I am just talking of the sellers who are trying and look to be
for the most part reliable.

Gary
 Author: graphite37 View Messages Posted By graphite37
 Posted: Jan 27, 2014 14:22
 Subject: Re: Seller Assistance Program
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graphite37 (2639)

Location:  USA, New Hampshire
Member Since Contact Type Status
Jan 9, 2012 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store Closed Store: Graphite Industries
Of the few sellers that I've had problems with the problem doesn't seem
to be an issue of not knowing what to do but a personality problem that causes
the issues. The issues I've had in particular have been with higher feedback
larger volume sellers that like to blame employees for mistakes, claim they will
fix it and repeatedly do nothing or continue to make excuses. You can usually
tell which sellers do not have the proper business mentality by looking at the
negative/neutral feedback and see how they respond to it. If every bad transaction
feedback gets a nasty or childish response from the seller then it is likely
there won't be anything that can be fixed with the store. Obviously they
aren't taking the bad feedback seriously or they don't feel they have
done anything wrong. And I'm not talking 1 or 2 bad feedback that may have
been a bad buyer, but 10's of bad feedback all stating roughly the same thing.
 Author: Made_In_Bricks View Messages Posted By Made_In_Bricks
 Posted: Jan 27, 2014 14:31
 Subject: Re: Seller Assistance Program
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Made_In_Bricks (3993)

Location:  USA, Idaho
Member Since Contact Type Status
Oct 28, 2009 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store: Made In Bricks
Gary,

I like the idea as a starting point, many directions to go.

I agree with Scott that there are some bad apples out there that are not helping
this site.

There is a group of sellers out there that their biggest problems is a combination
of the following, just poor personality for business (and would never have a
successful B&M store), cheap, dishonest, and on and on.

How do we make these people become clairvoyant on what the other 98% of members
want Bricklink to be?

I don't know, but the current process allows some people to take advantage
of people, make them feel bad, and make them not like bricklink anymore.

Will a "new" system prevent this? Probably not, just deter it a little bit.
Of course we as users could be vigilant about it, but turning against other
members isn't ever a good thing either.

I think Bricklink setting up criteria to have a banner installed on stores that
are performing at a level just above 3 NSS/NRS to stay open could have a a warning
banner or something along those lines until they straighten their act out.

Problem is about it being objective...

Think of a Restaurant that closes due to health code violations, they get a nice
closure notice stuck on their front door. Then when they fix the problem health
inspector lets them back open, but they now have to overcome their stigma of
a dirty place.

They change their act, over time everything will be fine

They don't change they get permanently shut down.

I would like to see something like this.

a seller gets 1 completed and confirmed NSS they are shut down for 48 hours

next NSS 1 week

third NSS shut down

I'm hesitant about feedback though, because this is subjective, one of my
3 is because USPS tore up a package, I refunded, the buyer said they would change
the feedback, never heard from buyer ever again, so this could be hard to work
around. Plus one could buy several orders and leave a bunch of negative feedback
as retaliatory just to get them shut down

its hard because negatives don't always mean it isn't "safe" to buy from
some one or that that store is bad, sometimes its personal.

Of course this means more work for the admin, but problems don't fix themselves



Thanks,

Ken
Brick It Yourself
 Author: ToriHada View Messages Posted By ToriHada
 Posted: Jan 27, 2014 14:39
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ToriHada (8887)

Location:  USA, North Carolina
Member Since Contact Type Status Collage
Feb 12, 2003 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
View Collage Pic
Store Closed Store: Thorz BrikTopia
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 Author: Made_In_Bricks View Messages Posted By Made_In_Bricks
 Posted: Jan 27, 2014 14:49
 Subject: Re: Seller Assistance Program
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Made_In_Bricks (3993)

Location:  USA, Idaho
Member Since Contact Type Status
Oct 28, 2009 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store: Made In Bricks
In Suggestions, fosterbengoshi writes:
  In Suggestions, BrickItYourself writes:
  
I would like to see something like this.

a seller gets 1 completed and confirmed NSS they are shut down for 48 hours


What is a "confirmed NSS" and how is this different than a completed NSS?

Thor

hey, when I'm auto correcting spell check in an e-mail with a baby in my
other arm I don't need people to be that nit-picky
 Author: ToriHada View Messages Posted By ToriHada
 Posted: Jan 27, 2014 14:54
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ToriHada (8887)

Location:  USA, North Carolina
Member Since Contact Type Status Collage
Feb 12, 2003 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
View Collage Pic
Store Closed Store: Thorz BrikTopia
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 Author: Made_In_Bricks View Messages Posted By Made_In_Bricks
 Posted: Jan 27, 2014 14:57
 Subject: Re: Seller Assistance Program
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Made_In_Bricks (3993)

Location:  USA, Idaho
Member Since Contact Type Status
Oct 28, 2009 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store: Made In Bricks
In Suggestions, fosterbengoshi writes:
  In Suggestions, BrickItYourself writes:
  In Suggestions, fosterbengoshi writes:
  In Suggestions, BrickItYourself writes:
  
I would like to see something like this.

a seller gets 1 completed and confirmed NSS they are shut down for 48 hours


What is a "confirmed NSS" and how is this different than a completed NSS?

Thor

hey, when I'm auto correcting spell check in an e-mail with a baby in my
other arm I don't need people to be that nit-picky

Nit-picky? No. Chill dude! I just don't understand what you mean. Are they
the same or are they different? Is a "confirmed NSS" the same as a completed
NSS? Or are you suggesting something different than a completed NSS but more
than a merely claimed NSS?

Thor

completed

chill? Sorry that a emoticon of a silly face didn't express that I wasn't
serious
 Author: ToriHada View Messages Posted By ToriHada
 Posted: Jan 27, 2014 15:03
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ToriHada (8887)

Location:  USA, North Carolina
Member Since Contact Type Status Collage
Feb 12, 2003 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
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Store Closed Store: Thorz BrikTopia
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 Author: ToriHada View Messages Posted By ToriHada
 Posted: Jan 27, 2014 14:35
 Subject: Re: Seller Assistance Program
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ToriHada (8887)

Location:  USA, North Carolina
Member Since Contact Type Status Collage
Feb 12, 2003 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
View Collage Pic
Store Closed Store: Thorz BrikTopia
I agree with Brett. Selling here is not rocket science. It is pretty simple,
and common sense for the most part. List what you sell correctly, promptly ship
what you buyers pay for, and politely communicate and work out any problems with
your buyers. Most sellers who have problems don't seem to care enough about
one or more of these basics.

Personally, IMO any seller who can't maintain at least a 95% positive SELLING
feedback rating should have their selling privileges suspended. Maybe your suggested
Mentor Program could be one way for such sellers to have their selling privileges
restored on a probationary basis.

Thor
 Author: therobo View Messages Posted By therobo
 Posted: Jan 27, 2014 14:54
 Subject: Re: Seller Assistance Program
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therobo (9681)

Location:  Germany, Berlin
Member Since Contact Type Status
Oct 20, 2001 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store: Area of Bricks 'n Studs
In Suggestions, fosterbengoshi writes:
  I agree with Brett. Selling here is not rocket science. It is pretty simple,
and common sense for the most part. List what you sell correctly, promptly ship
what you buyers pay for, and politely communicate and work out any problems with
your buyers. Most sellers who have problems don't seem to care enough about
one or more of these basics.

Personally, IMO any seller who can't maintain at least a 95% positive SELLING
feedback rating should have their selling privileges suspended.

Then any seller with less than 20 FB and 1 neutral FB would be out.
I don't think that a 19-1-0 seller is bad per se.

   Maybe your suggested
Mentor Program could be one way for such sellers to have their selling privileges
restored on a probationary basis.

Thor
 Author: Macaronis View Messages Posted By Macaronis
 Posted: Jan 27, 2014 15:27
 Subject: Re: Seller Assistance Program
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Macaronis (725)

Location:  USA, New York
Member Since Contact Type Status
Jun 13, 2002 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store Closed Store: Midnight Leftovers
In Suggestions, fosterbengoshi writes:
  I agree with Brett. Selling here is not rocket science. It is pretty simple,
and common sense for the most part. List what you sell correctly, promptly ship
what you buyers pay for, and politely communicate and work out any problems with
your buyers. Most sellers who have problems don't seem to care enough about
one or more of these basics.

Personally, IMO any seller who can't maintain at least a 95% positive SELLING
feedback rating should have their selling privileges suspended. Maybe your suggested
Mentor Program could be one way for such sellers to have their selling privileges
restored on a probationary basis.

Thor

Totally agree with the above

I am of an Old Draconian Darwinist that believes your either Know what your doing
or you die.. Same goes here. Not to mention Usually bad stores don't last.
Just like in the real world of everything else.. Yes along the way some people
get snookered, but this to me is common sense and the ability to look before
you jump. Just like these people who keep falling for the low priced 10179. Give
me a break.

It has nothing to do with being a bricklink Community or Iron Clad Industry Store.
If you lack common sense you deserve what you get. I find it laughable in some
cases that some of these stores are killing BL New Members when the New Members
seem to be unclear about what the process is since now a days you use Google
or You tube to " GET A CLUE" Stop making it easier for people who have No business
being here. We need people who can push brooms to you know.

Sorry I am so Negative. I do Applaud Gary for wanting to be a Better Human but
as I see it Being a better human with Free handouts only really breeds Lazy Humans..
just like Welfare. Why work when I can get free money.

Anyhow before I really start unloading I will just say HELL NO. There are how
many of us here who made it through the learning curve? It should be NO different
for them.

I will say this, As a Business there are SEVERAL things that need to be addressed
account and selling wise for security and safety. the way things work here on
an admin level are Laughable at best. Having to police stores for bad sellers
are things that DB backend Scripts and various other things should be doing.
I'm not going to get into this though.
 Author: Rolf View Messages Posted By Rolf
 Posted: Jan 27, 2014 15:32
 Subject: Re: Seller Assistance Program
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Rolf (339)

Location:  USA, Washington
Member Since Contact Type Status Collage
Apr 16, 2001 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
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Store Closed Store: Small Shop Up North
In Suggestions, fosterbengoshi writes:
  I agree with Brett. Selling here is not rocket science. It is pretty simple,
and common sense for the most part. List what you sell correctly, promptly ship
what you buyers pay for, and politely communicate and work out any problems with
your buyers. Most sellers who have problems don't seem to care enough about
one or more of these basics.

Personally, IMO any seller who can't maintain at least a 95% positive SELLING
feedback rating should have their selling privileges suspended. Maybe your suggested
Mentor Program could be one way for such sellers to have their selling privileges
restored on a probationary basis.

Thor

That looks good on paper but with numbers it's bit of a problem. At small
number of orders, say, 10, if there happen to be some random problem and seller
gets a bad feedback, he or she suddenly got only 90% positive feedback. However
at 20 positives, it's 95% if one of feedback is negative. It gets much worse
at smaller numbers, say 2, one of em being negative. boom 50% positive!

I would agree if say first 30 feedbacks would be defined as trial period, if
this person gets over 30 feedbacks and still below 95%, stop, it's hammertime.
 Author: calebfishn View Messages Posted By calebfishn
 Posted: Jan 27, 2014 14:57
 Subject: Re: Seller Assistance Program
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calebfishn (2141)

Location:  Canada, Ontario
Member Since Contact Type Status
Feb 17, 2009 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store: Barbie's Brick Store
As I see it, there are two needed levels of seller assistance. One of them is
easy, and the other is hard.

The easy level is what we see in the forum here. Someone is confused, or inexperienced,
and the good folk here chime in with a variety of advice and points of view.
The original seller may, or may not use any of that advice, and you will probably
never know how things went.

The hard level of assistance is closer to what you are doing. In this case someone
needs more "hand-holding", or deeper levels of understanding. They also do
not need, (or as is more likely cannot assimilate) all the variet of different
advice. It is true that what might work for a large store may be different than
for a small store, but some sellers can't figure out what will work for them.
So you are talking about some real step by step guidance here. By the way, this
may be useful for people who are not even having trouble in their store, but
who want specific help in changing their store, or how to manage exponential
growth in inventory.

For this second level of assistance, I think that something much more personal
than forum advice would be necessary. It would need more direct contact between
the seller and the mentor. It would be more like business consultation. (Foster
will likely tell us that there is all sorts of potential liability in that level
of consultation.) Such business mentoring should be more formal than the forum.
It should have some sort of agreement that makes clear how much "support" can
be offered, for how long, and that if, after following the consultant/mentor's
advice, your store still goes bust, then the seller assistance program is not
responsible or liable.

Some of the expert sellers here might also think that this level of business
to business consultation is worth some sort of fee.
 Author: bb186511 View Messages Posted By bb186511
 Posted: Jan 27, 2014 15:14
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bb186511 (3305)

Location:  USA, Missouri
Member Since Contact Type Status
Jan 13, 2010 Contact Member Seller
No Longer RegisteredNo Longer Registered
Store Closed Store: Garys Toys
No Longer Registered
In Suggestions, calebfishn writes:
  As I see it, there are two needed levels of seller assistance. One of them is
easy, and the other is hard.


Agreed

  The easy level is what we see in the forum here. Someone is confused, or inexperienced,
and the good folk here chime in with a variety of advice and points of view.
The original seller may, or may not use any of that advice, and you will probably
never know how things went.

Agreed
  
The hard level of assistance is closer to what you are doing. In this case someone
needs more "hand-holding", or deeper levels of understanding. They also do
not need, (or as is more likely cannot assimilate) all the variet of different
advice. It is true that what might work for a large store may be different than
for a small store, but some sellers can't figure out what will work for them.
So you are talking about some real step by step guidance here. By the way, this
may be useful for people who are not even having trouble in their store, but
who want specific help in changing their store, or how to manage exponential
growth in inventory.

Agree and I guess examples of what I am talking about is in order

For example if a seller is having issues with missed payments and missed shipments
a easy way around that would be to use PayPal Multi Order shipping. It will automatically
put in a tracking number on every order you ship. When you ship an international
order rather it be at the PO or via Endicia, stamps.com, etc... go put that tracking
number in with their payment. There will still be payments that are not international
that don't show up in PMS but it is now super easy to fly through your payments
received and see that you have something there with no tracking number.

I don't miss payments through PayPal for this reason and I get the notifications
on my phone. I also check once more in PayPal when I get my last order ready.
I personally don't go to the PO anymore. I have not went in probably 6 or
7 years. It is not necessary anymore as there is to many online alternatives.
So everything I do is electronic and leaves me a nice digital paper trail.


  For this second level of assistance, I think that something much more personal
than forum advice would be necessary. It would need more direct contact between
the seller and the mentor. It would be more like business consultation. (Foster
will likely tell us that there is all sorts of potential liability in that level
of consultation.) Such business mentoring should be more formal than the forum.
It should have some sort of agreement that makes clear how much "support" can
be offered, for how long, and that if, after following the consultant/mentor's
advice, your store still goes bust, then the seller assistance program is not
responsible or liable.

Agreed but I am not a lawyer. I don't think you can be held any more accountable
for advise via email than you could via the forum. Some advice just doesn't
need a huge audience. Foster would definitely be the guy to ask though.
  
Some of the expert sellers here might also think that this level of business
to business consultation is worth some sort of fee.

I personally am not worried about gaining from someone else's suffering.
I believe what comes around goes around. Pay it forward. However, I do understand
some will want to increase their revenue. That is understandable. I just wont
be worried about it myself.

Gary
 Author: edeevo View Messages Posted By edeevo
 Posted: Jan 27, 2014 15:09
 Subject: Re: Seller Assistance Program
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edeevo (11125)

Location:  USA, California
Member Since Contact Type Status Collage
Dec 12, 2003 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
View Collage Pic
Store: Lucky Eds Good Ol Bricks
In Suggestions, Garys_Toys writes:
  Upon reading the forums over the last few weeks I have noticed a few sellers
that are getting a lot of negative feedback, having issues with customers, getting
NSS, etc... A couple of these sellers I know personally. I do not know of their
issues and what is causing them and frankly it has been my experience not to
even get involved.

However, it does give me an idea that I think could only help. I know not all
sellers are bad and there are plenty that are. But what if we had some sort of
Seller Assistance Program that could reach out to some of these stores that are
not looking so good. Maybe we can get them on the right track and show them things
that we notice that may improve their store and their overall customer experience.

I know I will be helping one of these stores over the next few weeks as I have
already talked to him. Just from having a look at the forum posts, his feedback,
etc... I seen multiple things that I do that may help him improve on his end.

I know its easy to just warn everyone, ruin their name, and go on about your
business but helping them when they may be in need can't hurt and it can
only help the Bricklink community as a whole IMO.

Thoughts? Ideas?

Gary

Speaking as someone who runs his store on his own (and has a full-time job that
does not involve LEGO), I would welcome the opportunity to participate in such
a program (i.e. the aforementioned "Seller Assistance Program"). I'm not
a huge Seller here, but I have an extremely diverse inventory that had me complete
over 700 orders last year while somehow managing to balance a family (my daughter
just turned 13), a career, school (just finished my second Masters Degree), a
home purchase (and subsequent move), as well as a hobbyist pursuit in photography
(eDeevo Photography) and the occasional travel (road-trip) to visit family and
friends in other states... I am guessing because of that balance, I may be able
to offer some advice to the occasional Seller that may prove beneficial to them.

I believe there is one (generally) good Seller that you may be referring to as
running into these problems recently (who I had recently had a problem with).
Their issues were really compounded through a lack of (or frankly, dishonest)
communication. In my particular case, all the advice, encouragement, patience
and communication I used didn't get the (overall) good Seller to send me
anything other than vague responses and (assumingly deceptive) excuses (or "lies",
depending upon how one would define it). I would have been fine with an "I'm
sorry, I don't have xx parts you ordered" or "sorry for the delay, I've
been swamped with (*insert life challenge here*) lately" (we all have them
from time to time)
, if the response would have been prompt or timely.
Instead, I get a vague "oh you didn't get them? I'll look again" after
an inquiry into the order after two weeks, with no response for another two weeks
(only after I sent another inquiry)... I did receive my money back through PayPal,
but not after wasting a lot of time doing so.

Again, that particular issue is not to diminish the value of a Seller Assistance
Program, which I am wholly in support of... just keep in mind that such a program
would in no way guarantee these issues would not spring up again with any particular
Seller... it would basically be advice on how other Sellers (who wish to share)
handle different details of selling (who knows, it may just be a simple process
that a Seller is overlooking that would make all the difference, or maybe they
are making a process overly complex when it could be made simple).

Just my 2¢.

Life is Good.
~eD.
 Author: bb186511 View Messages Posted By bb186511
 Posted: Jan 27, 2014 15:19
 Subject: Re: Seller Assistance Program
 Viewed: 45 times
 Topic: Suggestions
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bb186511 (3305)

Location:  USA, Missouri
Member Since Contact Type Status
Jan 13, 2010 Contact Member Seller
No Longer RegisteredNo Longer Registered
Store Closed Store: Garys Toys
No Longer Registered
In Suggestions, edeevo writes:
  In Suggestions, Garys_Toys writes:
  Upon reading the forums over the last few weeks I have noticed a few sellers
that are getting a lot of negative feedback, having issues with customers, getting
NSS, etc... A couple of these sellers I know personally. I do not know of their
issues and what is causing them and frankly it has been my experience not to
even get involved.

However, it does give me an idea that I think could only help. I know not all
sellers are bad and there are plenty that are. But what if we had some sort of
Seller Assistance Program that could reach out to some of these stores that are
not looking so good. Maybe we can get them on the right track and show them things
that we notice that may improve their store and their overall customer experience.

I know I will be helping one of these stores over the next few weeks as I have
already talked to him. Just from having a look at the forum posts, his feedback,
etc... I seen multiple things that I do that may help him improve on his end.

I know its easy to just warn everyone, ruin their name, and go on about your
business but helping them when they may be in need can't hurt and it can
only help the Bricklink community as a whole IMO.

Thoughts? Ideas?

Gary

Speaking as someone who runs his store on his own (and has a full-time job that
does not involve LEGO), I would welcome the opportunity to participate in such
a program (i.e. the aforementioned "Seller Assistance Program"). I'm not
a huge Seller here, but I have an extremely diverse inventory that had me complete
over 700 orders last year while somehow managing to balance a family (my daughter
just turned 13), a career, school (just finished my second Masters Degree), a
home purchase (and subsequent move), as well as a hobbyist pursuit in photography
(eDeevo Photography) and the occasional travel (road-trip) to visit family and
friends in other states... I am guessing because of that balance, I may be able
to offer some advice to the occasional Seller that may prove beneficial to them.

I believe there is one (generally) good Seller that you may be referring to as
running into these problems recently (who I had recently had a problem with).
Their issues were really compounded through a lack of (or frankly, dishonest)
communication. In my particular case, all the advice, encouragement, patience
and communication I used didn't get the (overall) good Seller to send me
anything other than vague responses and (assumingly deceptive) excuses (or "lies",
depending upon how one would define it). I would have been fine with an "I'm
sorry, I don't have xx parts you ordered" or "sorry for the delay, I've
been swamped with (*insert life challenge here*) lately" (we all have them
from time to time)
, if the response would have been prompt or timely.
Instead, I get a vague "oh you didn't get them? I'll look again" after
an inquiry into the order after two weeks, with no response for another two weeks
(only after I sent another inquiry)... I did receive my money back through PayPal,
but not after wasting a lot of time doing so.

Again, that particular issue is not to diminish the value of a Seller Assistance
Program, which I am wholly in support of... just keep in mind that such a program
would in no way guarantee these issues would not spring up again with any particular
Seller... it would basically be advice on how other Sellers (who wish to share)
handle different details of selling (who knows, it may just be a simple process
that a Seller is overlooking that would make all the difference, or maybe they
are making a process overly complex when it could be made simple).

Just my 2¢.

Life is Good.
~eD.

I agree Ed. I understand there is sellers it will not help. I also understand
some folks need to take responsibility for their own actions. I am certainly
not trying to get away from that. I just think there is good sellers struggling
that may not have to.

Gary
 Author: BLUSER_424058 View Messages Posted By BLUSER_424058
 Posted: Jan 27, 2014 16:06
 Subject: (Cancelled)
 Viewed: 37 times
 Topic: Suggestions
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BLUSER_424058 (200)

Location:  USA, New Jersey
Member Since Contact Type Status
Sep 18, 2013 Contact Member Seller
No Longer RegisteredNo Longer Registered
Store Closed Store: Inventors Brick Shop
No Longer Registered
(Cancelled)
 Author: kzinti View Messages Posted By kzinti
 Posted: Jan 27, 2014 16:15
 Subject: Re: Seller Assistance Program
 Viewed: 49 times
 Topic: Suggestions
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kzinti (4924)

Location:  USA, Missouri
Member Since Contact Type Status
Jun 20, 2001 Contact Member Seller
Buying Privileges - OKSelling Privileges - OK
Store: The Brick Bin
With the varied styles of Sellers out there, implementation would be problematic.
Perhaps Veteran Sellers could volunteer to mentor New Sellers. Email and/or phone
numbers could be exchanged and meeting times arranged to discuss items that come
up. Doing this in a public forum would be too chaotic.

One of the disadvantages to any "Helping Program" is that Bad Sellers who do
not see themselves as Bad Sellers would most likely not ask for help, nor take
any help offered. Unless there is some kind of Peer Review Board initiated by
the New Owner, Bad Sellers have only to fear the three strike rule on completed
NSS cases.

On a side note: Not all Sellers who have a large number of non-positive feedback
are bad Sellers either. Some just deal in items that New Buyers purchase and
these Sellers bear the brunt of those Buyers' newness.